Wednesday, December 21, 2011

It has been a while since we last reported on some iPhone 5 rumors, but you’ll be interested to know that we now have some fresh information courtesy of an industry analyst, who believes that Apple will finally announce a true iPhone 5, or sixth-generation device next year.

While many will feel that the iPhone 4S is a great addition, adding innovative features like Siri, many iPhone 4 owners feel that the upgraded device doesn’t warrant an upgrade, and isn’t the true successor to the iPhone 4 after so much hype about what the next device may include.

Requests that are top of the list include things like a 4-inch edge to edge OLED screen, but one of the priorities that remain for iPhone fans is a brand new design, one which would offer a significantly different appearance than the iPhone 4.

With this in mind, you’ll be pleased to hear that the latest rumors from analyst Gene Munster and Piper Jeffray, is that he forsees 2012 as the year of the redesigned iPhone, a sixth-generation model that will release sometime during Summer, as reported from Apple Insider. He also believes that it is very likely that there will be significant changes to Apple’s products in 2012, considering that the company did not make any major hardware revisions in 2011. These words back up similar rumors which we told you about at the start of November, in which Digitimes claimed that Apple would bring hardware revisions to each product line, such as the iPhone, iPad, Macbook Air and Macbook Pro.

Some additional comments by Munster also put further strength behind the rumors that a new iPad 3 is coming. However, he believes that Apple will just introduce one new model to replace the iPad 2, rather than release a new iPad with different screen and capacities, a business model which Samsung are utilizing with their Galaxy Tab for example.

How would you feel if the iPhone 5 had a complete redesign? From our point of view, it would feel a little strange since everyone is used to the iPhone 4 now, but knowing Apple – any such design overhaul by Jony Ive would well be worth the wait.